IKEA takes meatballs off Europe menus after horsemeat found

MTI – Econews

Tuesday, February 26, 2013, 09:25

Sweden's IKEA stopped nearly all sales of meatballs at its furniture store cafeterias across Europe after tests in the Czech Republic on Monday showed some contained horsemeat. The world's No. 1 furniture retailer, known also for the signature restaurants at its huge out-of-town stores, said it was pulling all meatballs produced by its main supplier in Sweden after the tests showed horsemeat in its beef and pork meatballs. A European scandal erupted last month when tests in Ireland revealed some beef products contained horsemeat, triggering recalls of ready-made meals in several countries and damaging confidence in Europe's vast and complex food industry. Meatballs, a famous Swedish dish often served with mashed potatoes, gravy and lingonberry jam, have become a trademark for IKEA, which sells them hot from the in-store cafeterias and packaged off the shelf. The vast majority of IKEA's meatballs are made by Sweden's Familjen Dafgard, which said on its website that it was investigating the situation and would receive further test results in coming days. Besides the Czech Republic, the batch containing horsemeat had also been on sale in Britain, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Slovakia, Hungary, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Ireland. Magnusson said the test results would determine the percentage of horsemeat in the specific batch of meatballs. There was no indication that any other batch had been affected. Earlier this month, food manufacturer Findus was forced to recall thousands of packages of frozen beef lasagnes in Sweden after discovering they contained 60 to 100 percent horsemeat.

Home furnishings retailer IKEAʼs revenue in Hungary rose 14% year-on-year to HUF 61 billion in the business year ending August 31, the company said on Thursday. IKEA achieved the fifth highest growth in Hungary among its 29 markets.

The Number 3 internal medicine department of Jahn Ferenc Hospital has been closed as operations cannot be sustained anymore due to the excessive number of nursing staff quitting their jobs for better wages at the nearby IKEA store, according to Hungarian commercial news channel HírTV.

The third Hungarian store of multinational home furnishings giant IKEA opens on June 14 in Soroksár in the capitalʼs District 23, in an investment worth some HUF 17 billion, Eszter Varga-Nagy, the chainʼs communications manager, told state news wire MTI on Thursday, as reported by business news site vg.hu.

Hungary’s newest IKEA store - its third in the country - will open at 9 a.m. on June 14 in Soroksár, in District 23 of the capital, according to a video published today by the home furnishings retailer.

The Hungarian unit of Swedish home furnishings giant IKEA posted HUF 54 billion in revenues in its business year ending August 31, 2016, up 14.5% from the previous year, Marek Feltl, the regional managing director of IKEA, was reported as saying yesterday by Hungarian news agency MTI.

The Hungarian branch of Swedish furniture retail giant IKEA expects its third store currently under construction to open in the spring, communications director Eszter Varga-Nagy told Hungarian news agency MTI Tuesday. The new store is in the Soroksár neighborhood of southern Pest.

The Hungarian branch of Swedish furniture retail giant IKEA yesterday laid the cornerstone of its third store in the country in the Soroksár neighbourhood of southern Pest, according to reports. The store is expected to open in the first half of 2017.

Sales at the Hungarian unit of Swedish furniture giant IKEA were up 14.6% in its financial year ending August 31, as compared to the previous period, IKEA Lakberendezési managing director Marek Feltl said today, according to Hungarian news agency MTI.

Swedish furniture company IKEA signed a long-term lease for its new external pick-up facility in Tulipán Park Biatorbágy, owned by Logicor, with global real estate advisor Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) acting exclusively on behalf of the landlord in the lease transaction for over 5,200 sqm of warehouse and 650 sqm of office and client areas, C&W said in a press release yesterday.